No service for fake mobiles by end 2011

UAE telecommunications authorities have asked service providers to halt GSM services for fake mobile phones by the end of 2011, extending a deadline that had originally been set for November 13, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (RTA) said it had notified Etisalat and Du to stop that service at the end of December, adding that owners of such devices would be alerted by SMS to change their handsets.

“Etisalat and Du have replied and informed us they agree to cut off the service…it will be technically difficult to stop the services from all the fake handsets this month but this will be done by the end of 2011 at the latest,” TRA deputy director Majid Al Mismar told Emirat Alyoum newspaper.

He said spurious mobile handsets, many of which carry famous brand names, enter the UAE illegally, adding that these devices are manufactured in a “cheap way” and that they do not meet recognized international specifications.

“Most of them are not environment-friendly and pose short-term health hazards…they also lack authorized maintenance services in the UAE and the batteries of some of them are vulnerable to explosion,” he said.

Mismar estimated the number of counterfeit mobile phones in the UAE at more than 70,000 but noted that they are only a fraction of the total mobile handsets in service of nearly 11 million.

He said TRA, which oversees the telecommunication sector in the UAE, would launch an awareness campaign within the next few days to warn the public against the hazardous use of fake mobile phones.

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